A British court ruled that global mining giant BHP is liable for the 2015 collapse of a dam in southeastern Brazil. The event was the countr
...the country's worst environmental disaster, unleashing a wave of toxic sludge that killed 19 people and polluted the length of the Doce River. London's High Court ruled Friday that global mining giant BHP Group is liable over the 2015 collapse of a dam in southeastern Brazil. "BHP are strictly liable as 'polluters' in respect of damage caused by the collapse," of the dam, the court said in its ruling following a large-scale trial. Hundreds of thousands of Brazilians, dozens of local governments and around 2,000 businesses sued BHP over the collapse of the Fundao dam in Mariana, southeastern Brazil, which was owned and operated by BHP and Vale's Samarco joint venture. Brazil's worst environmental disaster unleashed a wave of toxic sludge that killed 19 people, left thousands homeless, flooded forests and polluted the length of the Doce River. Judge Finola O'Farrell said in a summary of her ruling that BHP should not have continued to raise the height of the dam before its collapse, which was "a direct and immediate cause of collapse of the dam giving rise to fault-based liability on the part of BHP".
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